Meet the Team

Nothing happens without teamwork, and we’re very proud of the group that we’ve assembled. In addition to the fine individuals listed below, we have a full time staff of 28 people who are dedicated to bringing you the best food and service in the Washington, DC area.

Leland Atkinson

Executive Chef & Owner

Our chef honed his craft and developed his fondness for big bold flavors at an early age. Washing dishes at 15. Cooking at 16. Apprenticing at 18. Chef at 23. If only he could have developed some other interests…

Leland has had the good fortune to work with some of the best chefs in the industry at Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons Hotels, the White House and Mark Miller’s Red Sage.

More than just a pretty face, Chef Atkinson wrote the Julia Child-Award Winning ¡Cocina! A Hands on Guide to the Techniques of the Southwestern Kitchen. Additionally, he has created recipes, food styling and research for numerous other cookbooks, including On Cooking by Labensky/Hause (the definitive culinary text for many of the country’s most prestigious cooking schools) and Mark Miller’s Red Sage.

One of the first things that Leland wrote was a business plan. For as long as he’s been cooking, he’s dreamed of opening his own business and creating an outlet to share his creations with the public. A place where he could surround himself with people as devoted to quality food and customer service as he is. Sinplicity is the culmination of that dream.

Lisa Anthony

Operations Director

Ms. Anthony is actually a classically trained pastry chef and is responsible for some of our best dessert and breakfast bread creations. While perfecting our Chocolate-Streusel Banana Coffee Cake, Mocha Whoopie Pies and other delicacies, Lisa looked around and said “Somebody’s got to get these boneheads organized.” And she did. Our company and our customers are very fortunate that she embraced the challenge.

A graduate of L’Acadamie de Cuisine, Lisa has worked in some of Richmond’s best restaurants including City Bar and Chophouse, Pomegranate Euro Bistro and the Jefferson Hotel. While she misses the mayhem of the kitchen, she understands that without her hands on the proverbial wheel, Sinplicity would be careening through the bushes and crashing into a tree in no time.

When she’s not putting out figurative fires at Sinplicity, Lisa relishes her role as young Scarlett’s mom. Although the precocious child keeps her on her toes, she usually does so with a quotable line and a twinkle in her eye.

Temperance Puffer

Pastry Chef

If you’ve enjoyed something extra tasty and button cute from us lately, odds are that Temperance was on the production end of the equation. Actual quote from one of our guests: “These tarts taste like they were kissed by angels!”

While preparing to enter law school, T Puff had an epiphany: The world needs pastry chefs more than it needs lawyers. (We’re paraphrasing here.) Instead of Stanford, she headed for the Culinary Institute of America. After baking her way across the country at places such as Ritz Carlton Lake Tahoe and the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island, she landed here with us.

We’re blessed to have her as part of the team. As the lady says; “Life could always be sweeter.”

I just wanted to say everything was great and everyone was really excited to hear that Sinplicity was catering – so your reputation preceded you!Katie Jones NTCA